Covert rationing - a summary

We have seen that covert rationing - whether manifested by Gekkonian HMOs, the Wonkonian Regulatory Speed Trap, or the appropriation of "individual autonomy" to the hastening of death and devaluing of life - is causing us two significant problems.

First, it is slowly eroding the basic principles on which our culture is based, especially the primacy of the individual. If we lose that, we lose our cultural identity - and what sort of a people we may become if that happens is frightening to contemplate.

And second, it has caused virtually every aspect of our healthcare system to become geared toward separating the interests of doctors from the interests of patients.  For doctors, the loss of their advocacy role removes them from the rank of professionals, and retroactively justifies their subjugation by the Gekkonians and the Wonkonians. For patients, the loss of their advocates, just at the time when they are most vulnerable, places them at the mercy of powerful forces whose only motivations are cost, profit and power.

This all sounds pretty bad, and it is.  That's why we need to figure out what we can do about it.

 
Figuring out how to fix the entire healthcare system is beyond the scope of this website, but (I am happy to tell you) not beyond the scope of my book, Fixing American Healthcare - Wonkonians, Gekkonians and the Grand Unification Theory of Healthcare. The Grand Unification Theory (outlined here ) is a conceptual model that encompasses and characterizes every conceivable healthcare system one could possibly build. Thus, it allows us to imagine a global "fix" for our healthcare system that is uniquely American. It points us toward a system that eliminates covert rationing, that meets the "fairness, efficiency and effectiveness" criterion that every Western nation strives for, and that honors the foundational American principle of individual autonomy. Furthermore, Fixing American Healthcare demonstrates how we can build such an "ideal" healthcare system in a civil fashion, without the prerequisite of blood flowing in the streets, and even without criminalizing much of what is good about our current healthcare system.  I hope you will consider reading it.

But whether you read my book or not, you need to know that only one thing has to happen to produce such a favorable reformation of our healthcare system. All that must happen is for a critical mass of us Americans to understand what's going on, and then to begin acting in our own, enlightened self-interest - not to perpetrate reform, but merely to protect ourselves and our loved ones in our encounters with American healthcare. Covert rationing fundamentally relies on patients who are relatively passive, compliant, and completely reliant on the "system" for their healthcare advice. If enough enlightened Americans become empowered by knowledge, covert rationing will implode.

The key to both individual safety and to societal reform is self-empowerment.  The next part of this website - Surviving It - will help you to achieve it.  Then the following section - Fixing It - will provide the broad outline of one form of a universal fix for the entire American healthcare system.